


Shattered and Reckless

by TwentyoneTwelve



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebels, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Callsign 009, Gen, Phase 3, Rogue Robin 2017, Slavery, Some Mention of Violence, completed story, some legacies some new canon, surgical description
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-27
Updated: 2017-05-27
Packaged: 2018-11-05 13:56:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11014794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TwentyoneTwelve/pseuds/TwentyoneTwelve
Summary: Ahsoka is forced into close proximity with someone who betrayed her a long time ago. Times have changed, have they?The conclusion to a three part stort for the Jedifest Rogue Robin 2017 http://jedifest.tumblr.com/





	Shattered and Reckless

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Shattered and Reckless](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10252394) by [Sweven](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sweven/pseuds/Sweven). 



_…Barriss Offee is not your friend. Barriss Offee killed Jedi. Barriss Offee is not your friend. Barriss Offee killed Jedi. Barriss Offee is not your friend. Barriss…. Repeat until physically ill or dead…._

The Mirialan woman paused mid-shove, causing the stocky being ahead of them on the crowded ped-way to grumble and attempt to swat her. She dodged it easily, turning back to Ahsoka, an eyebrow lifting over her prosthetic eye. “Maybe your head got rung harder than I thought… or is talking to yourself something you picked up in the last 18 years?”

“The head’s fine.” Better than she’d expected even with a day’s rest and meditation. Barriss didn’t need to know that though. Any advantage might be the tipping point in her escape. “And maybe it is. At least I know I can trust both parties in that conversation.”

Her erstwhile friend turned back to forcing their way through the foot traffic, but Ahsoka noted with hot satisfaction that her shoulders sat lower than before. Breaking free of the ped-way and the hot, stale smell of too many beings in too warm weather, the scent of Vaynai’s signature seaweed struck Ahsoka with all the subtlety of a dianoga trying to wedge all seven tentacles up her nose. She coughed, spluttered, and eventually had to reach out to the Force in a desperate attempt not to gag.

“Heh.” The man standing next to Barriss snorted with amusement, and Ahsoka’s heart pinched at the familiar voice with its unconscious timbre of safety and comradeship. He was Rex and Cody and Fives and Wolffe and Kix and he was none of them. This man had scarlet red hair and eyebrows that contrasted oddly with his lined face. “Don’t worry, Snips, you’ll get used to it. Smoke the stuff and you’ll not notice it ever again.”

Between the voice and the nickname and the scarred face – a stiff and shiny patch on his face where a rough graft had repaired a blaster burn – and the black suit with flashing lights on its chest control panel, the pinching feeling in Ahsoka’s chest was rapidly coalescing into black hole-level compression. _It’s not him. It’s not him. It’s not…_ She had to force her ribs outwards against the pressure to take a breath.

“This is Slick.” Barriss gestured to the man beside her, taller by a head than the Mirialan, even with her head covered in a high twisting fabric wrap. Like most of the veterans of the Grand Army of the Republic he was muscled, the angles of his face hard. His were sharper than she remembered, his frame wiry where it wasn’t covered by the black T.I.E. pilot uniform.

“Relax, Snips.” He snapped a black bubble between his teeth, breathing out a concentrated waft of the general seaweed stench. “It’s an unpleasant job but someone has to do it. Been handy for what we do anyway.”

*

What they were doing—and Ahsoka would have threatened Barriss AND Slick if she’d had a working lightsabre and they hadn’t locked her in the large sized cage that made up the hold of their Allanar N3 light freighter, although the temptation to telekinetically injure them was still high—was flying to Kashyyyk to collect a load of Wookiee slaves and deliver them to a classified Imperial construction site.

“Get used to calling it Imperial territory G5-623.” Barriss instructed her after several days of incarceration with a non-verbal droid bringing her food and emptying the chemical Porta-Fresher had rendered Ahsoka’s rage down to a sullen simmer. Healing trances had been providing some relief to her broken ribs and wounds, and she was increasing the difficulty of her stretching routines. The Mirialan leaned casually on the bars of the cage. Ahsoka itched to grab her, but they were stun bars, and probably set to take out an angry Wookie. Not something her montrals appreciated. So, she sat on the bench against the wall, gut churning in disgust.

Barriss tipped her head, that dark amusement back on her face. “Perhaps you should stay on the ship. Keep radiating that into the Force, and we’ll have Sith coming for parsecs eager for a new apprentice.”

Ahsoka snorted. “We’ve already met our capacity for those.” She met her former friend’s eyes, tried for a contemptuous smirk of her own. “Did Sideous recruit you himself, straight out of your cell?”

Barriss shrugged, moving towards the cage door, her blaster coming to hand. “We got out during the Siege of Coruscant. I guess you could call a direct strike on the prison roof that. For now, you’re taking up room that we’re going to need in couple of hours.”

*

Ahsoka’s new cell was a stripped and locked crew cabin. After throwing herself on the mattress and feigning sleep until she was sure Slick and Barriss were too busy with landing to bother watching her she took out her frustrations in a thorough search of the room. Satisfied and tired and with everything that could be wrenched loose or broken free in a jumbled pile on the floor, she tinkered with the wall mounted vidscreen until it picked up an exterior view of the ship.

They had landed on a tiny portion of an immense flattened-off tree branch, one of the worshyr that were home and livelihood of the native Wookiee population. This pad however was clearly managed by Imperial forces. White troopers were garish against the greens and browns of their surroundings, as they herded a column of Wookiees, chained together, their heads either bowed or anxiously looking back at another cluster of their kin. This second group included cubs and greyhairs and were menaced by several troops, clearly insurance should the out-bound slaves think to resist.

She was still seething hours later, when they were well into hyperspace and Barriss came to the cabin door. Before the shorter woman could prepare she called upon the Force, shoving Barriss hard enough against the bulkhead that the duraplast creaked, and holding her motionless there.

“Is this a game you play?” Ahsoka demanded. “I’m a fool. For even considering it was worth trusting you again. Oh, you talked so eloquently at my trial, and the last few years I’ve even thought I could understand why you did it. You warned me, and I survived because of that. But SLAVES, Barriss and for the Empire? You sold me Mustafar, baited me with a chance at Darth Vader, and here we are in an entirely different sector. You’re Sithspawn, Barriss Offee, and rabid with it. What next, auction me off and see what Sideous will pay you? I wouldn’t care, except you made me complicit in what you did back there.”

“Complict?” Barriss spat back with enough venom to weaken Ahsoka’s Force grip. “You mean you finally feel it, Jedi? I’m so glad that you’ve developed empathy for the enslaved, because you sure hadn’t when I knew you.” She laughed, and it cracked partway. “Oh, there’s no need for that expression. Sit down. I’ll explain it.” She paced the width of the cabin, her steps uneven, the turns contrary. “You know where they sent me to ‘recuperate’ after that little brain worm? A medical mobile surgical unit on a Force-forsaken planet. There was a plant that worked better than bacta, so we couldn’t let them have it, and we couldn’t bomb them from orbit. So, they poured clones onto that world, and the Rimsoo unit, we stuck them back together and sent them back out. And the ones we couldn’t, well, they got put in a chiller to use for spare parts. ‘Meat-droids’, the surgeons called them and they were the ones trying to save the clones’ lives. And when I got back, the Council told me that it had been my Trial for Knighthood.”

Barriss rubbed her hands together, dry washing them in an endless loop. “Did you know that every clone feels different in the Force? They were people, Ahsoka, and we took them and changed them and gave them no choice where they fought or who they fought, or even if they fought at all. You were complicit in slave-taking from the moment you accepted the use of a Clone army against the separatists. Jedi got to opt out, even if they did use the ‘leading of the Force’ as an excuse. Clones just kept getting shoved out the launch bay doors. I always wondered how your Master Skywalker could justify it to himself. But sure, I’m the insane one. Because I gave a warning no one wanted to hear.”

She left the room then. It took Ahsoka several minutes to realise the door had remained open.

*

There were sounds from the cargo bay, the hooting and barking calls of Wookiees arguing and bantering back and forward, and Ahsoka followed them.

Another wall of shock bars and an opaque duraplast screen divided the cage into two. In the first, the Wookiees had separated into factions, some growling at others, some staring at the floor or walls or their companions, softly moaning in distress.

Slick perched atop several crates, appearing to be engrossed in the holodrama on his handheld play, but his sharp dark eyes studied both pens. Behind the screening barricade, the cage door was open. In the middle of the floor, a blonde male Wookiee sat cross-legged, Barriss standing over him, a laser scalpel in one hand and cutting into his scalp. She apparently found something and dug it free, showing it to her patient before slipping it into one pocket of the oversized medical smock she wore and pulling a tiny glimmering item from the other and dropping it into the wound. Barriss sealed her incision and gently finger-combed his long hair over it.

He growled something to her, hidden under the noise his cage mates were making, and stood, another coming to take his place from what Ahsoka realised was a semi orderly line. She watched as Barriss substituted another small implant, the Mirialan woman deep in concentration, then left the hold.

*

Ahsoka was sitting at the table, staring into a cold mug of caf, when Barriss entered the galley. Her blue eyes were glazed and her hands shaking as she dumped a small pile of what appeared to be bloody neuro chips into a bowl and cycled it through the heating unit. Tiny sparks rose from the bowl and acrid smoke made them both cough when she opened the door. Barriss tipped them carefully down the garbage disposal before sliding into the seat opposite Ahsoka.

“It’s taken me six standard months of dirty jobs to get this run.” She spoke without prompting or meeting Ahsoka’s gaze. “They have Slick flying cover in his T.I.E. most of the run, and he’s ordered to blow me away if I deviate from orders. I guess I have you to thank—well, your rebellion at least—apparently your Spectre team helped establish the Wookiee resistance. They let me know who’s signed up for sabotage, or their family is in danger, and I pull their slave chips and replace them with ones that can’t shock or coerce.”

Barriss stretched out her hands and Ahsoka realised, with a flush of embarrassment that it was the first time she’d ever noticed, that the tattoos on their backs formed a stylised version of the intergalactic symbol for ‘medic’.

*

Ahsoka was in the pilot’s chair when they decelerated to dock with an Imperial spaceplatform three days later. She had barely spoken to Barriss, but the fragile truce had clearly held.

Slick held position off their stern in his fighter. “We’re not trusted any closer than this.” Barriss explained, gesturing to the empty starfield around the station. “Word is, this one is a top-secret project. All we know is they go through workers faster than a Rancor through an Ewok dancing troupe, and they always take them the final jump.”

*

They had confirmed and sealed the Allanar N3’s docking port, and were waiting in the airlock for the stormtrooper escort to finish unloading when Ahsoka heard human shouts from further along the corridor, and the soft _whuft whuft_ of a Wookiee in pain.

She all but dragged Barriss down the hall. Within a large side room, two young men in Imperial Officers uniforms stood over the curled-up form of a chestnut-coloured Wookiee. One held a stun stick, and even while arguing with his colleague kept reaching down to jab it against the fallen slave. As the women peered around the doorway, the other man, young and lanky with hair that seemed to actively resist the grooming imposed on in, swung at the man with the stun stick. It caught him on the point of the chin, dropping him to the ground half atop the Wookiee, who growled, and gingerly pushed the limp body away before trying to stand. He hooted and moaned something at the young man who shook his head.

The Wookiee turned, catching sight of Barriss’ headdress before she could duck away. The officer slapped a hand onto his waist holster and took several rapid steps towards them. His commlink buzzed and he swore softly before answering.

“We could,” Barriss said in answer to a question the Wookiee directed at her. “Nal Hutta might work.”

“No, it wouldn’t.” The officer interrupted her, a Corellian twang colouring his vowels. “There’d be a man hunt if I goo to.” He raised a hand to break the Wookiee off midsentence. “I get it. I understand how a Life Debt works. I’ll find you there.”

He grinned at Barriss, the scar on his chin pulling it into more of a grimace. “Have to face this like a man first. Not sure what I was thinking. Courtmartial for sure, but he’s been laying into this guy for weeks. There was no need. Sometimes people need to have a message beat into them I guess. See if it works.” He turned to the Wookiee. “Go with them, hey?”

*

The chestnut Wookiee strode off into the rainy Smuggler’s Moon night with a grumble of thanks. Ahsoka turned to Barriss. “I guess this is me too. Gotta get my data-cards back to Fulcrum.”

“Before you go…” Barriss chewed on her already gnawed lip. “What I did back then. It was wrong. I was scared. I thought I was the only one seeing the cancer that was growing in the order and all I could think to do was radical surgery – the good to ensure all the bad was gone. And then blaming it on you. I was wrong. I’m sorry, Ahsoka.”

“For what it’s worth, you were right.” Ahsoka tucked the apology inside to mull over later. “Master Skywalker -it destroyed him. He became Darth Vader.”

Barriss’ eyes were wide. “I’m truly sorry to hear that. If… I found a way back. Maybe there will be one for him.”

“Perhaps.” Ahsoka agreed, striding down the landing ramp, turning to call back over her shoulder. “But for now, we do what surgery we have to. May the Force be with you, Barriss Offee.”

“And you, Ahsoka Tano.”

**Author's Note:**

> This was an interesting challenge - and maybe now at the end I can admit that I've never seen Rebels and I'm only in season 2 of Clone Wars.  
> However, Barriss Offee was a favourite character from the Legacy books, and one thing that put me off starting Clone Wars was the changes made to her. This story was an attempt to meld the two versions in a way that honoured both, and hopefully completed the story begun by two marvellous writers. 
> 
> I hope you like the little cameo from everyone's favourite Scoundrel. This was also an event that happened off page in Legacies, and it seemed to fit in well. 
> 
> If you've liked this - I recommend reading  
> The Approaching Storm by Alan Dean Foster- http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/The_Approaching_Storm  
> This has padawan Anakin and padawan Barriss, and their Masters.
> 
> The Medstar Duology : Battle Surgeons & Jedi Healer by Michael Reaves and Steve Perry - http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/MedStar_I:_Battle_Surgeons  
> Think M.A.S.H. during the Clone Wars. Great for those interested in xenobiology, and Barriss Offee the medic.
> 
> The Han Solo Trilogy - The Paradise Snare, The Hutt Gambit & Rebel Dawn by A.C.Crispin - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Han_Solo_Trilogy  
> Great look at young Han. The episode mentioned is in the Hutt Gambit.


End file.
